Research on chickens can help endangered species

The difference between a wild and a domesticated variety within a species is often greater than the difference between different species.
Photo Credit: Charlotte Perhammar

LiU researchers are mapping the genetic differences between the domestic chicken and its wild relative the junglefowl. They will now try to find out whether it is possible to use genetic engineering to “undomesticated” domesticated chickens. This could be a tool for conserving endangered species – and perhaps recreating extinct animals. 

Imagine a world without a dog – often called a man’s best friend. A world also without cows, pigs or sheep. If our ancestors had not domesticated many animals and plants a few thousand years ago, there would be no fields of grain, rapeseed or cotton. All animals would be wild. Humans would hunt, fish, and gather plants in nature to put food on the table. In short, virtually every aspect of our lives would be radically affected if the phenomenon of domestication were to be deleted from the history of the Earth. 

Counting salmon is a breeze with airborne eDNA

A male Coho salmon, featuring the characteristic hooked nose, returns to spawn from the Oregon Coast.
Photo Credit: NOAA Fisheries

During the annual salmon run last fall, University of Washington researchers pulled salmon DNA out of thin air and used it to estimate the number of fish that passed through the adjacent river. Aden Yincheong Ip, a UW research scientist of marine and environmental affairs, began formulating the driving hypothesis for the study while hiking on the Olympic Peninsula.

“I saw the fish jumping and the water splashing and I started thinking — could we recover their genetic material from the air?,” he said.

The researchers placed air filters at several sites on Issaquah Creek, near the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery in Washington. To their amazement, the filters captured Coho salmon DNA, even 10 to 12 feet from the river. Scientists collect environmental DNA, or eDNA, to identify species living in or passing through an area, but few have attempted to track aquatic species by sampling air.

Immune cells turn damage into repair

Intestines one week after abdominal irradiation, showing proliferating epithelial cells (in brown).
Image Credit: Julius Fischer / TUM 

Patients receiving intensive cancer treatments often suffer from severe damage to the intestinal lining. Researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Leibniz Institute for Immunotherapy (LIT) have discovered that certain immune cells can trigger healing processes. They use inflammatory signals to do so - which is surprising, as inflammation in the intestine was previously thought to be primarily harmful. This finding could open new possibilities for therapies. 

Regulatory T cells (Tregs), a specialized type of immune cells, are usually seen as “peacekeepers” that prevent excessive immune attacks. In a study  published in Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, researchers from the Department of Radiation Oncology at the TUM University Hospital and the LIT Cooperation Group “Innate Immune Sensing in Cancer and Transplantation” uncovered how the body's own immune system can be harnessed to repair the intestinal lining and improve survival.  

Polyphenol-rich diets linked to better long-term heart health

Photo Credit: Adél Grőber

People who regularly consume polyphenol-rich foods and drinks, such as tea, coffee, berries, cocoa, nuts, whole grains and olive oil, may have better long-term heart health. 

The research, led by King’s College London, found that those with higher adherence to polyphenol-rich dietary patterns had lower predicted cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. 

Polyphenols are natural compounds found in plants that are linked to various health benefits, including improved heart, brain, and gut health. 

The study, published today in BMC Medicine, followed more than 3,100 adults from the TwinsUK cohort for over a decade, found that diets rich in specific groups of polyphenols were linked to healthier blood pressure and cholesterol profiles, contributing to lower CVD risk scores. 

Clean biogas – measurable everywhere

Ayush Agarwal worked on the analysis of biogas during his doctoral studies at the PSI Center for Energy and Environmental Sciences at PSI.
Photo Credit: © Paul Scherrer Institute PSI/Markus Fischer

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have developed a new analytical method that can detect even tiny amounts of critical impurities in biogas. This procedure can be used even by small biogas plants without the need for major investment – thus facilitating the energy transition.

The market for biogas is growing. According to the Swiss Federal Office of Energy, Switzerland fed 471 gigawatt hours of this fuel into the natural gas grid last year – roughly twice the amount fed in ten years ago. This comes with an increase in the need to measure impurities in the biogas quickly and reliably, because strict quality criteria apply to this green gas.  

Researchers at PSI’s Center for Energy and Environmental Sciences have now come up with a solution to this problem. The analytical method they have developed can simultaneously detect the two most critical impurities in biogas: sulfur compounds and siloxanes. They have now presented their method in the journal Progress in Energy. 

Australopithecus deyiremeda, an ancestor of the human species discovered in Ethiopia, was bipedal and climbed trees

Professor Lluís Gibert, from the University of Barcelona, is the only expert from a European institution participating in an international study based on the analysis of the bones of a fossilized foot and teeth that has revealed how Australopithecus deyiremeda, a human ancestor that coexisted more than three million years ago with Australopithecus afarensis — the famous Lucy — on the plains of East Africa, moved and fed.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of University of Barcelona

In 2009, scientists found eight bones from the foot of a human ancestor in layers of ancient sediment at the Woranso-Mille site in the central Afar region of Ethiopia. The fossil remains, known as the Burtele Foot, were discovered by a team led by paleoanthropologist Yohannes Haile-Selassie, from Arizona State University (United States), but were not assigned to any fossil species of a human ancestor from the African continent.

A study now published in the journal Nature and led by Haile-Selassie solves the mystery and reveals that Burtele Foot belongs to the species Australopithecus deyiremeda, a new hominid fossil discovered years ago by the researcher’s team at the Woranso-Mille site (Nature, 2015). Thus, the study of this fossil foot — dated to about 3.4 million years ago — reveals that A. deyiremeda was an Australopithecus that walked on two limbs (bipedalism) and also lived in trees, as indicated by the presence of a prehensile big toe like that of chimpanzees. 

The international team of experts includes Professor Lluís Gibert, from the Faculty of Earth Sciences of the University of Barcelona, who is the only researcher from a European institution to sign the study. Geological analyses were decisive for dating and linking this foot to the remains of A. deyiremeda. 

Possible therapeutic approach to treat diabetic nerve damage discovered

Longitudinal sections of two injured nerves with regenerating nerve fibers. Both specimens are from diabetic animals; in the lower image, the animal was treated with a peptide. Regeneration can be seen in the green-stained nerve fibers.
Image Credit: Dietmar Fischer / University of Cologne

Researchers have decoded the signaling pathway that inhibits nerve regeneration in diabetes and have developed a therapeutic peptide that could transform the treatment—and possibly even the prevention—of diabetic nerve damage. 

Nerve damage is one of the most common and burdensome complications of diabetes. Millions of patients worldwide suffer from pain, numbness, and restricted movement, largely because damaged nerve fibers do not regenerate sufficiently. The reasons for this are unclear. A research team led by Professor Dr Dietmar Fischer, Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Cologne’s Faculty of Medicine, and Director of the Center for Pharmacology at University Hospital Cologne, has now identified a central mechanism that explains limited regeneration in diabetes. Building on this, the researchers have developed a promising therapeutic approach that can be used to increase regeneration. Their findings were published in the ‘Science Translational Medicine’ journal under the title ‘Failure of nerve regeneration in mouse models of diabetes is caused by p35-mediated CDK5 hyperactivity’.

Researchers Warn: Climate Change Could Expand Habitats for Malaria Mosquitoes

“Our climate scenarios show that we can prevent much of this by limiting climate change.," says lead author of the study, Tiem van der Deure.
Illustration Credit: University of Copenhagen

An insistent buzzing at sunset followed by itchy, spotted legs. Here in Denmark, mosquitoes are mostly an annoying – but generally harmless – nuisance. That is far from the case in many parts of the world. 

Every year, around 600,000 people die from malaria, a mosquito-borne disease – most of them in sub-Saharan Africa, and children are the most vulnerable. This makes malaria one of the deadliest infectious diseases globally. 

A new study from the University of Copenhagen, published in Global Change Biology, shows that future climate change could create more favorable conditions for malaria mosquitoes, exposing millions of people across large parts of Africa to more dangerous mosquito bites.  

Coffee linked to slower biological ageing among those with severe mental illness – up to a limit

Photo Credit: Julia Florczak

New research from King’s College London finds that coffee consumption within the NHS recommended limit is linked to longer telomere lengths – a marker of biological ageing – among people with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. The effect is comparable to roughly five years younger biological age. 

Telomeres are structures that protect DNA. As people get older, their telomeres shorten as part of the natural human ageing process. This process has been shown to be accelerated among people with severe mental illness, such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, who have an average life expectancy 15 years shorter than the general population. 

Previous research shows that coffee has health benefits. It may reduce oxidative stress in the general population, helping slow biological ageing processes like telomere shortening. The new study, published in BMJ Mental Health, explores whether coffee consumption could slow this ageing process among those with severe mental illness. 

Seal milk more refined than breast milk

The Atlantic grey seal nurses its young for only 17 days. This means that the milk must be packed with good stuff to quickly prepare the seal pup for a tough life at sea. Researchers have analysed seal milk and discovered many new types of milk sugar.
Photo Credit: Patrick Pomeroy / contributing author

Researchers have discovered that milk from grey seals in the Atlantic Ocean may be more potent than breast milk. An analysis of seal milk found approximately 33 per cent more sugar molecules than in breast milk. Many of these sugars are unique and may pave the way for even better infant formulas for babies. 

During the 17 days that grey seal pups suckle, they need to get their digestive systems up and running and build up an immune system to protect them against diseases and other dangers they may encounter in the North Atlantic. It is reasonable to suspect that their mother's milk is extremely refined to accomplish this task. An international study with researchers from the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology in Nature Communications shows that this is indeed the case. 

“Our analysis shows that grey seal milk is extraordinary. We identified 332 different sugar molecules, or sugars, compared to about 250 in breast milk. Two-thirds were completely unknown previously. Some of these molecules had a previously unseen size of 28 sugar units, which exceeds the largest known sugar units in breast milk, which are 18 units in size,” says Daniel Bojar, senior lecturer in bioinformatics at the University of Gothenburg.